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Movie Review: Transformers

The Transformers film does a great job of making an aging cartoon that's meant …

The threat was imminent: Michael Bay, not one of the better-liked directors in Hollywood, was helming the Transformers movie. His designs for the beloved characters were quite the departure. The game, of course, is a rushed cash-in. The Internet has been screaming about the movie since it was announced, which means every fan who knows the universal greeting is going to be filing into theaters this week to see just how bad the film is. Surprisingly though, after seeing the film last night, Michael Bay might not have spit in the face of your childhood after all.

Our film begins in the Middle East, and we find out quickly that one of our boys has a baby back home. That's never a good sign. Soon the base is attacked by a phantom helicopter that has the markings of an Air Force MH-53 Pave Low that was believed to have been shot down, and in the ensuing firefight the giant robot tries to break into the government's computers. Clearly, the alien threat is looking for something.

Back in suburbia, a teenager named Sam Witwicky is buying his first car to impress a girl way out of his league, and after an amusing scene with Bernie Mac he has in his possession a beat-down yellow Camaro with a hanging bee air freshener that says "Bee-Otch." The car just happens to drive itself and provide background music to impress said girl. You see, this boy had a grandfather who made an amazing discovery years ago, and one of his artifacts has some very important information on it: information that could turn the tide of a very old war between two sets of very large transforming robots.

When Sam is attacked by a menacing cop car by the name of Barricade and is saved by Bumblebee in his true form, he finds out that he's firmly in the middle of a brutal conflict that could destroy the planet. Bumblebee calls in the reinforcements, and we're introduced to the rest of the Autobots, including a gorgeously animated Optimus Prime who is again played by the incomparable Peter Cullen. If you have fond memories of the character, they won't be ruined here.

The movie switches between very vicious-looking battle scenes (watch for the showdown between Optimus Prime and Bone Crusher on the highway; it drew cheers from my audience) and some funny scenes with the human characters. The government stuff can be a little tiresome, and a menacing but apparently bumbling branch of the government called Sector 7 does very little except pad the running time. But the second you begin to get bored, there's another piece of fan service and a giant fight to pull you right back in.

The bar has been raised for special effects here: the Autobots and Decepticons feel heavy and absolutely real in every frame they're in. There are long, lingering shots of the models in full light, and I couldn't find a CGI character that pulled me out of the movie or made me think I was seeing something that wasn't actually there. This isn't only a special effects film though: it's safe to say the careers of Shia LaBeouf and Josh Duhamel have been made by this movie, as they both provide exactly the film needs with expert, precise performances.

On a side note, I definitely could have done without some of the easy potshots at Bush and some of the more political humor; it will only anger right-leaning audience members without adding anything to the movie.

There are cheesy moments, and the film could have used a firmer editor, but for fans of the original cartoon it's pure bliss. There are too many great scenes and surprises to ruin here, so I'll leave the specifics out, but I will say that Michael Bay has delivered a film that stays true to the source material while updating the franchise for a modern audience. The tech-geeks in the audience will be driven crazy by some of the "hacking" scenes, and that's a testament to how good the movie really is. When you can forgive the giant alien robots and accept them as real and focus on the terrible use of computers in the movie, they've done something right. The scenes with the Autobots rolling down the highway in vehicle mode look great, and while the Decepticons don't have a lot of character development, StarScream does great in every scene he's in, including a breathtakingly-shot dogfight with a group of F-22 Raptors.

This is a must see if you're in the mood for a strong, loud summer movie. Fans of the Transformers and newcomers alike are going to have a lot of fun.